Category: fabric

Spotty cotton & bamboo

Organic cotton & bamboo

Here’s my latest order from my lovely organic cotton people. Three metres each of spotty and plain organic cotton and bamboo blend. Isn’t it lovely? It’s in the washing machine at the moment, and I’m expecting it to be super soft when it comes out. The almost-matching thread’s organic too, and I’m planning to buy a lot more of this in future.

When the pattern eventually turns up in the UK, I’m going to turn it into Simplicity 1755. I might have let out a little squeal when I saw this dress. It’s everything I usually look for in a vintage pattern – cute collar, raglan sleeves, full skirt, pockets… but in a modern size, which means I don’t have to wear terrifying underwear or spend days re-drafting the pattern only to discover that it still doesn’t fit. Marvellous!

The sample swatches are Texweave, which is a lovely heavyweight woven fabric, perfect for coats or upholstery, and Super Jersey, which is another cotton/bamboo blend. It really does feel super too, so soft, and with just enough elastane to make sure it doesn’t go baggy. I can feel some lovely soft pyjamas coming on, or perhaps a vest or two.

I have a lovely big tin full of their fabric samples now – every time they bring out something new I send off for the samples straight away. This means that any time I want to go fabric shopping, I can simply pull down the tin and look at all the little squares. Much easier than just picking something at random from the website and hoping for the best!

Tea dyeing experiment

Out of date decaf

I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs about dyeing fabric with plants lately, and I wanted to do a little experiment. But chemical mordants seemed a bit complicated and scary, and I don’t yet have a dedicated saucepan just for dyeing, and I wanted to get started straight away. So, inspired by Tiina Teaspoon, I decided to start with tea!

Tiina recommends freezing your used teabags until you’ve got enough to dye with, which I’m going to start doing from now on, but tucked away in the back of the cupboard I knew I already had a box of decaffeinated tea bags that had gone out of date. I started with 16g of dry fabric (silk paj, cotton muslin, bamboo and silk dupion) and 17g of tea, or five tea bags.

Fabric swimming in the tea

I filled a saucepan with hot water, and simmered the tea bags for an hour. Our water here is very hard and full of lime, and there was a lot of scum on the top of the tea. I did wonder whether I should have used distilled water, but not having any to hand, tap it had to be. I took out the tea bags before adding the fabric. All of the fabrics had previously been through the washing machine to remove any starches or other treatments left over from the manufacturing process (including the silk), and I soaked them in warm water before putting them into the tea.

Taking up the colour

The resulting brew was very dark, and the fabric began to take up the colour immediately. If I just wanted to dull down a piece of cotton, or create an “antique” look, I wouldn’t have needed to do much more than just dip the fabrics into the tea.

Almost finished

In the end I let the pot simmer for another hour, by which time almost all of the water had evaporated. Possibly I should have left the lid on the pot, and turned the temperature down even lower. The water really only needs to be kept hot for this, not actually boiling. After the hour I turned off the heat and left the fabrics in the tea dye to cool down. I kept stirring the fabrics around throughout the entire process, maybe every fifteen to twenty minutes or so. (Every time I walked through the kitchen. I wasn’t very precise about it!)

Tea dyed fabrics
From left to right: bamboo, silk paj, cotton muslin, silk dupion

I rinsed the fabrics under the shower until the water ran clear, which was actually very quickly. I didn’t use any detergents, just warm water. I knew the cellulose fibres (bamboo & cotton) would take the colour differently from the protein (silk) ones, but I’m suprised at the depth of colour and the variations between them all. The fabrics are still a little bit damp in this photo, so the dupion has dried a little bit paler, but the two silks have kept their shine, and the colours are just lovely.

I’m now on the lookout for more plant dyes that can be used without any additional chemicals to fix the colour or release the dye. In the meantime I have plenty of tea in the house, so I can feel an experiment coming on!

Organic cotton/bamboo skirt

Cotton/Bamboo Skirt

After years of buying only sample pieces from organiccotton.biz, I finally got around to ordering some yardage. The skirt above is a blend of organic cotton and bamboo, and it’s beautifully soft and drapey.

I don’t believe most of the claims about bamboo fabric having practically magical anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. The plant material (which does have those qualities) needs to go through so many processes before it can be spun, it’s doubtful whether any of its beneficial aspects would survive. However, it’s a very good fibre to use for fabric. It needs no pesticides to grow, uses far less water than cotton, and it grows so rapidly that it’s quick to replenish, which means you don’t need acres of space to plant it. Even better, the fabric it produces is unbelievably soft.

This is my usual ruffled skirt – take one calf length a-line skirt pattern, and stick a ten-inch ruffle on the bottom. Simple! It has pockets in the side seams, and the edges of the ruffle are overlocked with a satin stitch.

Waistband

The waistband I pretty much made up as I went along. It’s based on an old favourite skirt that wore out long ago. The centre channel has a bias tape drawstring threaded through two eyelets. The channels above and below have narrow elastic threaded through.

Things I learnt as I was making it?

  1. Thread the drawstring through before the elastic.
  2. Make absolutely certain that the elastic isn’t twisted.
  3. Whilst the bias tape foot for my sewing machine is a marvellous invention, I need to learn how to make the joins in the bias strip go through it more smoothly.

Leaf detail

The finishing detail is this pair of little leaves on the ends of the drawstring. They each have an offcut of batting inside, making them a little bit textured and squishy. I was torn between overlocking the edges or leaving them raw so that they’d fray a little in the wash. I do like the satin stitch edge, not least because they make the leaves stand out against the skirt, but it isn’t as tidy as I’d have liked. A little more practice needed, perhaps.

I keep going on about the softness of the fabric, but that really is its stand-out quality for me. It’s like the softest sheets you’ve ever slept on, or that favourite shirt you’ve been wearing for years.

I’m working on a set of costumes at the moment, all of which seem to be made with synthetic fabrics and have lots of fiddly little details. It’s been really nice to take a break and sew something simple, that feels like a little bit of luxury.

New curtains

New Curtains

I can’t claim that I made these, but they’re a good example of a simple modification. The only curtains we could find in the right colour for the kitchen had tab tops, and it wasn’t possible to get the curtain pole off the wall (without making a great deal of mess!) in order to slot the curtains into place.

All I needed to do was buy enough curtain tape (at a grand total of 26p a metre!) to go across the width of each curtain, snip off the tabs, and sew the tape into place. They’re now hanging from the existing rings and letting a lovely turquoise light into my kitchen.

Nuno Felting

Nuno Felting

Hello! I feel as though I’ve been away for ages. I’m so busy at the moment I’ve barely had time to breathe, never mind blog, but I made this yesterday and I thought it would be a nice little something to show. It’s a somewhat experimental piece of nuno felt, about the size of a sheet of A4. As you can see, I’ve felted a little bit of merino onto a backing of muslin.

Nuno Felting

When the wool starts to felt, the fibres contract and matt together. The cotton muslin doesn’t shrink, so you get these lovely textures coming through.

Nuno Felting

This is the back, with its lovely rivers of ruching, and the wool fibres just poking through.

Not bad for a first attempt, I think!

What a Difference an Iron Makes…

Blue organic cotton dress - before

Without wishing to put anyone off the idea of buying my organic cotton fabric, this is what it looks like when it comes out of the washing machine. In these days of synthetic fibres and “easy-iron” fabrics, this might come as a bit of a shock.

Blue organic cotton dress - after

Thankfully, a few minutes with a nice hot iron can work wonders!

I know that plenty of people will be looking at this and thinking “why bother?”, especially when synthetic blends and surface coatings can reduce or even eliminate the need for ironing altogether. From a personal point of view, I’d much rather wear a natural fibre such as cotton than a synthetic one, even if it does require a little more effort on my part. Let’s just not talk about the little mountain of crumpled shirts sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe, waiting for me to get around to doing the ironing…

Organic Cotton for Sale!

Oh, I have so many things that I’ve made and haven’t told you about yet… and I have a new job, and new ideas and new plans… but first of all I need to do a little bit of clearing out.

It’s more than three years since my order of Bishopston Trading fabrics arrived, and I still have quite a bit left. They’re colours that I was left with when people ordered half a bolt, and they don’t really fit into the scheme of the new things that I want to make. (Nope, not even the pink!)

I have approximately seven metres of green, nine metres of pink and just three metres of blue that need to go to a good home. Or several good homes. So, I’ve set up a Big Cartel shop for the purpose of selling them to you.

The price is £7 per metre, plus a little bit extra for shipping. I’ve also offered the option to buy little sample swatches, so you can see the colours and feel the fabric before you decide whether to order a bigger piece. The green in particular is very difficult to photograph, although the photo above is actually pretty accurate.

Big Cartel only allows for you to order in whole metre increments, but if you did want smaller pieces such as fat quarters, I can do that for you – just leave me a comment or drop me an email. (claire@eternalmagpie.com)

Once I’ve re-homed this little lot, I can then buy some lovely organic cotton jersey and fleece. I’ve just designed a lovely little cropped hoody, and am working on some pretty skirts and tops. Watch this space…

Organic Cotton Skirt Ideas

Skirt ideas

Starting to work with the organic cottons again reminded me that I’d already put together some designs for skirts that were very similar to the blue cotton tunic dress. Large pockets and a ruffle, although I think I’d go for an elastic waistband rather than darts and a zip.

I drafted these little sketches way back in 2008, when I was also going through a phase of buying lots of recycled fabrics, mostly in the form of duvet covers. I thought I could use the matching pillowcases to make the ruffles and pockets, and do you know what? I think that might just work! Why it’s taken me three years to get around to doing anything with this idea, I’m not so sure.

I have four colours of organic cotton left in the stash – blue, green, pink and cream. My favourite place to buy organic cottons has a special offer on pot-luck remnant pieces, so I might buy a bundle and see what turns up. That, along with the Kaffe Fassett fat quarters, should give me plenty of choices for contrasting waistbands and pockets.

Blue Organic Cotton Dress

Blue organic cotton dress

This is a little tunic dress, from one of my own patterns. The main body of the dress is blue organic cotton from Bishopston Trading. The yoke and assorted other parts are also organic cotton, from Kaffe Fassett’s collection for Rowan a few years ago.

The pockets are set into the side seams, because it seemed like a good way of creating a nice sturdy finish. As the tunic is so full, next time I think I’ll make patch pockets and place them a little further towards the centre.

I’ve worn this with and without the belt, and I think it looks great either way. The belt is made from 5cm elastic, simply covered with matching fabric which gathers as the elastic contracts. The ends are fastened with loops and matching fabric-covered buttons. Next time I’ll add a slightly thicker interfacing, or perhaps a scrap of corset coutil, to make the front panels a little less likely to fold over on themselves. I also need to make another one about two inches longer, as this one’s a bit too tight for my liking!

I’ve been thinking for a long time about what to make with my organic cottons, and I’m really pleased with this tunic and belt. This is going to be the start of some thinking out loud in fabric, as I try to work out which styles might be available for sale.

Lobster Skirt!

Basildon Park

I managed to miss the Horrockses exhibition at the Fashion & Textile Museum, so I was delighted to pick up a leaflet for Basildon Park and find out that I could see them a little closer to home. The dresses were beautifully displayed throughout the house, but the highlight for me was this lobster-print skirt – ideally placed in a room full of shells!

It was really nice to be able to get so close to so many of the dresses. I learned a lot about the intricacies of their construction just by being able to look at them in such detail. Most of the dresses featured an underarm gusset with tiny topstitching, which was something I hadn’t seen on any of my 1950s sewing patterns.

We also got to chat to the housekeeper, who was doing some conservation work on a pair of beautiful silk curtains. She’d had some very fine net dyed to the same colour as the fabric, and was carefully removing some older, more coarse netting and replacing it with the new. It was really interesting to be able to see the work in progress, and to compare it with some of the work around the house that had already been done.

The gardens and house were very beautiful, but mostly I just want to know where I can get hold of some lobster fabric!